Nigerians were outraged last week when Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, was quoted as saying that Nigeria has surplus doctors. Appearing on a television programme, the minister said he was not bothered by medical doctors leaving Nigeria because the country has more than enough of them. Dr. Ngige has since said he was quoted out of context. But in a swift reaction the Nigeria Medical  Association (NMA), which is the umbrella body of medical doctors in the country,  debunked the statement, saying  the country does not have enough doctors and that the development was causing problems for citizens.  

 

Ngige had said,“I’m not worried, we have surplus (doctors), if we have a surplus, we export. I was taught Biology and Chemistry by Indian teachers in my secondary school days. They are surplus in their country. We have a surplus in the medical profession in our country. I can tell you this. 

 

It is my area, we have excess. We have enough, more than enough, quote me.” NMA’s President Dr Francis Adedayo Faduyile described the minister’s comment as very unfortunate, saying “it is not true.” Faduyile said there are many indices that are used to assess whether a country has adequate number of doctors. One of them, he said, is to compare the country’s doctor to patient ratio to that of the World Health Organization (WHO), which recommends one doctor to 600 patients. 

 

The NMA boss said for Nigeria the ratio is one doctor to 5,000 people or one doctor to 6,000 people. He said it could be worse in some areas with one doctor to 10,000 patients. He said: “So it shows that for every 1000 patients we are short by about 10 doctors. So we are grossly in shortage of doctors”. 

 

That such a statement could come from Dr Chris Ngige is most unfortunate. Aside the fact that he is Minister of Labour and as such should have statistics of doctors in the country, especially those in government hospitals, which are usually the health facilities with the least number of doctors, he is also a medical doctor and should have a good idea of the state of the nation’s hospitals and what patients go through in a bid to get attended to by a doctor. He should not speak off the cuff. 

 

He should have carefully considered his statement and based it on verifiable statistics. This is not the first time such a statement is being made.  In September last year, Prof. Isaac Folorunsho Adewale, the Minister of Health, said all doctors cannot become specialists, adding that some of them can try their hands at other things like farming or politics. 

 

These type of statements do not portray the government in good light, as they suggest that government is unaware of the true situation of affairs. The true picture of things in the country is what was painted by the NMA president and if the government is concerned about boosting health care, then it has to recognise the fact that the country does not have enough doctors and efforts should be made to get more. In some hospitals, especially those in rural areas, there is often just one doctor or in some instances, none. Because of this, many people now resort to private hospitals which the poor cannot easily afford. 

 

Recently many doctors were captured at an interview for medical personnel to practice in Saudi Arabia. Efforts  should instead be made to improve the package of the doctors, especially income. Their working environments should also be improved upon and all necessary equipment that will aid their performance should be provided to keep them in the country. 

 

The Minister said when Nigerian doctors leave the country to work abroad, they send money back home, thereby contributing to the economy. That is true and to an extent, it is a good thing, but that does not mean brain drain should be encouraged. If all the specialists who left the country were still here, medical tourism would have reduced.